LAKE COUNTY >> The Lake Transit Authority Board of Directors voted to raise wages for Paratransit Services employees by 8.16 percent, amounting to about $1 per hour more for each non-management employee.

At its regular meeting on Wednesday morning, the board unanimously approved the pay raise after it heard the findings of a survey that asked what public transportation in similar counties were paying their workers. The comparison highlighted these numbers against the wages and benefits of Lake Transit employees.

“It’s a good proposal,” Transit Manager Mark Wall said. “It is low end, but it is comparable to similar counties.

The study, which was prepared by AMMA Transit Planning, revealed that disparities between other rural counties in California and Lake County were stark when it comes to wages for its transit workers. To the employees the idea was nothing new. They gathered to strike over wages in 2013.

According to AMMA’s data, median wages of those surveyed are larger for full-time and part-time drivers for Lake Transit. For full-time drivers, Paratransit pays a starting wage of $10.48 per hour while the median beginning wage was $14, a 34 percent difference.

The gap was also wide for part-time drivers. Median starting rates for those employees were 33 percent larger, $13.95 compared to $10.48 respectively.

A much wider gap was discovered between highest wages paid, a 68 percent difference. The AMMA study pointed to these disparities as the reason behind Lake Transit’s high turnover rate for employees going from part-time to full-time.

This study was just one of many arguments Wall and Paratransit’s Project Manager Wanda Gray brought to the board. Another major one was recruitment, which according to her numbers, was difficult even before the Valley Fire.

“Everyone in Lake County is having recruitment issues,” Gray said. “Of the application’s we’ve received, nearly half of them aren’t eligible for hire.”

After the fire, she added, she lost six employees with some of them relocating and others taking other jobs. The company is trying to recruit employees through hiring bonuses up to $500 and up to $800 for experienced drivers.

Once hearing the arguments and the survey, including the upcoming minimum wage increase in California to $10, the board was concerned by the added cost of sick pay, vacation benefits, and systems for increasing an employee’s wage like steps or merit-based rewards.

“It’s nickels and dimes when you talk about it,” District 2 Supervisor Jeff Smith said. “But take a penny a day and it adds up.”

Besides that concern, discussion on the proposal item did not last long and thereafter approved.

According to Wall’s memorandum to the board, the change in wages may cost up $135,000. The funding, he said, would come from a state one-time assistance fund from CalTrans set aside for fire recovery.

“Informally, that’s what they told us,” Wall told the Record-Bee. “Long term, it can come from the operating budget. But since we have emergency operating funds, it will help offset costs.”

Paratransit Services have been contracted by the LTA since 2007. Its contract is set to expire in June 2016.

The proposal will now go to CalTrans, which will give it final approval.